The Shadow King
by donalgraeme
Summary: Guided by the spirit within him, Naruto Uzumaki sets off on the dark path to ultimate power, the path known as... necromancy. Cheesy, cliched, and bound to fail; read anyway, please.


**This is a tenuous, bound-to-fail idea that I discarded a while ago. However, I have the urge to write it down now, and who am I to defy the will of a muse? I pray that you enjoy this and will look forward to more.**

* * *

It is the dawn of the age, and one man is facing death. This would not be such a tragic thing, in the grand design, were it not for the identity of this man: the Rokudou Sennin. Years ago, when he was young, he faced down and defeated the terror of the land, known as the Juubi. Utilizing the strange power that he called chakra, he succeeded in sealing the Juubi away inside his own body, containing it with the power that his doujutsu supplies, which would later be mentioned only in whispers: the Rinnegan.

The man was praised by the people of the land, offering their undying gratitude for the man removing the creature of their nightmares. The Sennin sired two sons in his time, and as they grew he saw how his eldest had inherited his fire and passion, but it had been his second that had inherited his calm and peace of mind. He named the younger his heir, infuriating his eldest. The aging sage had no way of knowing that he had just sparked a blood feud that would last for decades to come, with his eldest's legacy of hate growing and festering until it found its true host in the boy that would be his great-great-great-grandson.

But enough of that for now; we return to where we started: with the sage's approaching death. The man has held the Juubi in check, these many years, but he knows that with his death, it will be released once again. However, the man cannot allow this: the damage a fully intact Juubi could wreak would be catastrophic. And so, on his deathbed, the Rokudou accessed his eyes' one last time, and tore the Juubi asunder. Nine fragments of the greatest evil ever known scattered across the land, while the final piece, bound to the Sennin's soul, was sealed into the ultimate creation of the Rokudou Sennin: the moon itself.

Many years later, the nine fragments would emerge once more, and be feared throughout the world as the Bijuu, horrific beasts of awesome power. But few ever ask the most important question: how had these nine identical parts of a whole mutated and adapted into nine beings of varying power all on their own? The answer is simple: they hadn't. And this is where our story begins…

* * *

It is the dark of the moon. No matter how hard one looks, they will not see even a sliver of the celestial orb. But that is compensated by the unparalleled brightness of the stars, without their brother eclipsing them. The stars shine down on the land, bathing every corner in soft light. Unfortunately, not all can appreciate their beauty. Some are too preoccupied with matters of their own survival.

In Konohagakure no Sato, one such person is Uzumaki Naruto. He is a small boy, far too small to be considered healthy for his age. Despite being seven years of age, he looks like one of five. However, his stunted growth was the least of his worries. There were many others of much greater import: where his next meal is coming from, how he was going to cope in the Ninja Academy when he starts classes in the fall. Yet, even these concerns are shadowed by another, and this one was: survival.

It was Naruto's birthday. That was never a good day. Even though a festival held throughout the whole village took place, it still was the worst day of the year for the small blond. No matter how bad his life was turning out so far, each birthday brought it down to a new low. Why people were mean to him? Why did they say bad things to him and hurt him? Why wouldn't they let him make friends with their kids? Why? That question was the one most frequently asked by Naruto, and the one that was never answered.

However, the young boy could cope with all that, to a degree. In his young mind, he figured that if he just put on a smile and kept on acting happy, then eventually people would see he wasn't bad and stop being mean. He had done this for as long as he could remember, and he was so used to doing it that he felt that the smile, the bright showing of teeth as his tan cheeks marred by three whisker marks apiece spread and his azure eyes closed, was a mask: a mask that he couldn't take off, no matter how hard he tried.

A precious few saw through his mask and only one truly cared that it had been needed. That one was the Sandaime Hokage, the retired leader of the village, forced by necessity to take up the mantle once more after his successor's death. His successor, Minato Namikaze, was the answer to Naruto's question, his questions of why. For you see, Minato Namikaze had sacrificed himself to seal the terror of the Kyuubi within his own son when it attacked on the day of Naruto's birth.

Why he chose his own son to harbor such an evil, no one really knows: those who knew the man thought that his selflessness literally wouldn't allow him to place the burden on any child but his own; others thought that he just acted on impulse and never thought it through, and others simply didn't care. The past was past, and only one thing mattered: the consequences.

These consequences were the combined efforts of almost the entire village to make Naruto's life as miserable and hopeless as possible. People, at a time of loss and confusion, are rarely ever rational. When the Sandaime revealed the truth behind Minato's 'victory' over the Kyuubi, at his successor's wishes, they did not react with praise and gratitude at the man's sacrifice and his child's burden. Instead, they reacted with fear, arrogance, ignorance, and hate, a deadly cocktail that led to a child so desperate to cover up his sadness and the emptiness within that he threw up a veil of unconcern and joy. Those with pure hearts wept.

However, at times, it felt as if the Sandaime possessed the only pure heart in the village. It was bad enough that the boy had been kicked out of the orphanage, had no friends to speak of, and was treated daily to the cruelty of the scornful and bigoted, with the occasional drunken mob, though these were broken up by the Hokage before any real damage was done. However, that was just the tip of the iceberg; the true horrors occurred behind closed doors, without the boy's knowledge.

The Council: a collection of major clan heads, important Shinobi, and civilian representatives that held a great deal of power in the affairs not directly under the control of the Hokage. Almost since the boy's birth, this body had bickered and argued with the Hokage and among themselves on how to 'deal' with the boy. The Hokage moved to leave the boy alone and let him lead as normal and peaceful a life as could be managed. Almost no one agreed with this view, instead debating constantly over whether to kill him outright or turn him into some kind of pet, which could obliterate their foes with the power of the Kyuubi at the snap of their fingers.

The Hokage managed to head off several attempts at both, but not even the most powerful and resourceful of ninja can cover every angle, every channel. At the age of seven, Naruto had already been to the ICU over thirty times for fatal injuries at failed assassination attempts. One boon granted by the evil within: the boy's healing rate was mind-boggling, making the boy capable of surviving wounds that would leave grown men dead within minutes. Still, it was a frightening number of trips, and they could only increase, barring the spontaneous removal of all the rods in the collective asses of the Council and the village at large: rather unlikely.

We have wandered; let us return to the matter at hand. Naruto has already faced a great many hardships in his life; that has been made obvious. However, he had never been treated to an amalgamation of two that already happened. Until now, that is. And here we are, with the boy as he runs for his life through the outskirts of town, chased by a group of Chunin that had been enjoying the festival and the delights it offered. However, Naruto had accidentally stumbled into one of them on his way back from eating ramen at his favorite stand. The man and his fellows, all of them with at least a jug apiece of sake already in their system, had reacted in a violent, and potentially lethal, manner. As their fury broke, they yelled out things like 'demon spawn' and 'we'll finish what the Yondaime started,' before going after him as an enemy would. Those nearby paid no attention, all the aid they could offer their potential 'heroes'. The shift of Anbu that guarded the boy had just ended, and so it was the exquisitely wrong time for anything to happen to Naruto. So, of course, it did.

Naruto's pursuers had given chase for an hour already and where still going strong: they were, after all, trained killers on a mission. None of Naruto's usual tricks to avoid those chasing him seemed to work, and the boy already had a few kunai or shuriken embedded in his frail body. The Chunin were filled with rage and lethal intent, but even in their drunken state they knew to not use jutsu: it would alert the boy's protectors, and that was the last thing they needed. So, they simply kept up with the child, trying to corner him, occasionally firing off some projectiles when they had a clear shot. Even as they chased down what they saw as the reincarnation of their woes, the group of mid-level Shinobi was forced to admire the boy's stamina. And yet, the seemingly-limitless amount of energy the boy had come to naught.

The boy ran right up to the village walls; ironic that what was meant to keep evil out would keep evil in as well. The boy piteously tried to climb up the wall, but of course he was unsuccessful. He turned around, and looked death in the eye. The Chunin had fanned out, completely cutting off any chance of escape for the young blond. As the truth that he was truly going to die settled in Naruto's mind, all he could do was ask his question one last time. "Why? What did I do wrong?" Tears of sorrow flowed freely down the boy's cheeks as his mask finally shattered, allowing years of sadness, misery, and utter _aloneness_ to break free and have their way with him.

The Chunin arranged against him did not as much as blink when they saw the heart-wrenching look in the boy's eyes. The leader of the group yelled out "What did you do wrong? You existed in the first place, demon! You should have died the day you were born!" In the synchronicity of the teamwork that made Konoha-nin famous in the first place, the six Chunin let fly, unleashing a hail of shuriken and kunai that would kill Naruto instantly, healing factor or no. To Naruto, the world seemed to slow. He watched as his death approached. Hopefully, it would be better than his brief life. With his last instant of life, Naruto threw his head back and wailed, proclaiming his pain for the world to here.

However, we couldn't just have the boy die, could we? That would totally ruin the story! And so, let us witness the magic that is a deus ex machina. Out of nowhere, the Sandaime showed up, flanked by a full squadron of Anbu, appearing from behind a nearby rooftop. "YOU FOOLS!" the man screamed, his killing intent so intense that everyone in the immediate vicinity literally _tasted_ death for a brief second. The man wasn't called the "God of Shinobi" as a nickname, people. Without needing any handseals whatsoever, Hiruzen Sarutobi breathed out a stream of red-orange flame that blew the barrage of thrown weapons right out of the air. However, a lucky few broke through. Barely a second has passed; Naruto is still screaming. A kunai, cherry-red, embeds itself in his left lung, silencing him; another fails to pierce his neck, but manages to cut open the carotid artery. The rest, luckily, missed.

By the time Sarutobi lands on the ground, Naruto has lost too much blood. By the time he has knocked out each of the Chunin with textbook jabs to pressure points, the light has started to leave the boy's eyes. When the Sandaime actually reaches Naruto, he is approaching a body; the pale skin and the dead eyes confirm it. The man hangs his head in shame as his Anbu tie up the Chunin. _'Minato… Kushina… Naruto… I'm so sorry to all of you.'_ The man lets a few tears fall, but then reins it in. He is a shinobi; he has seen death and would see it again, even if it was only in the paperwork for an S-rank mission.

Sarutobi silently closes the boy's eyes, before turning to face his Anbu. He will be strong; he will deal with this mess and wait until the privacy of his home to truly mourn. "I want these men, for lack of a better word, to wake up in chains, in the company of Anko and Ibiki. See that it is done. Also, send someone to take Naruto to the morgue. I must convene the Council." His men silently nod, before vanishing. Sarutobi looks back at Naruto one last time, before vanishing as well.

* * *

Naruto blinks. If this was death, it wasn't at all what he expected. If it was heaven, he would have expected open fields, clear skies, maybe the family he never had. If it had been hell, Naruto would have expected burning piles of bodies, demons, maybe even a cheesy monster voice coming from all directions. But he faced neither of these: he was in a sewer, by the looks of it, or maybe a flooded underground facility. At one end of the hall, an ominous red light blinked. Faced with nothing better to do, Naruto made his way towards the light.

'_Wait; didn't one of the kids at the orphanage say something about a long tunnel with a light at the end being bad? Ah well, who cares?'_ Naruto quickly appeared in the largest room he'd ever see. It was dominated by a giant gate, which seemed to be held closed by a flimsy sheet of paper. Behind the gate, a pair of blood-red eyes as big as Naruto himself regarded him, and the simple glance seemed to contain within it the potential to kill. Naruto had long ago learned how to sense danger, a necessity to know which vendors would actually sell him food, and that little sense was having a seizure. The very air seemed to reek with evil and destruction.

Naruto, torn free of the protection of his mask, merely stared back. He felt nothing, he _was_ nothing. He was empty, and he couldn't have cared less if the eyes shot lasers and fried him to a crisp; he was dead anyway, so what was the point in caring? Naruto felt like a porcelain figurine: hollow and fragile, as if a single touch would break him into countless pieces.

A mouth appeared beneath the eyes, full of razor-sharp teeth. A voice emerged from between those teeth, though they didn't move an inch: a deep voice, laced with malice so thoroughly one automatically assumed that its owner was unequivocally evil. **"Hmm, a total lack of survival instinct. Plenty of potential as well. Right about now, I could give you a knife, a few months' training, point at an approaching army, and you'd charge without even caring about self-preservation, and actually manage to take a few down. That's convenient. Plus, at this point, you're closer to the Void than you'll ever be again. It's as if the Fates are screaming at me."** A chuckle emerged from between those teeth.

Naruto regarded the disembodied face blankly. "If you're not going to actually do anything, could you please be quiet and leave me to wallow in death peacefully?" Another chuckle was the boy's only answer. "It probably doesn't matter, but where am I? Who are you, while we're at it?" The tone used was a complete monotone, lacking any life; it could have been a corpse speaking. The mouth spread into a smile.

"**To answer your first question, you are in your own mind. Quite a dump, too, I must say. To the second, that depends on who you ask. My parents would call me son, my fellow Bijuu would call me brother, your village would call me the Kyuubi no Youko or Kyuubi no Kitsune. But you're asking me, so I'll answer with the name I once had long ago: you can call me Moria."** Naruto didn't blink.

"If this is my mind, then why are you here? The Yondaime killed you." This monotone question/statement was met with some of the most raucous laughter Naruto had ever heard. It was quite odd, as laughs go: a high-pitched **"Kishishishishi!"** that seemed to never end. The walls rumble as the laugh resounds. When it finally dies down, Moria still has mirth in his voice as he answers. **"That blond idiot killed me? Kishishishishi! I'd have to wake up with a hangover and four broken limbs for that flyspeck to even have a chance of giving me a minor bruise! It took having half my power removed, going into a Sharingan-induced berserk rage, and the aid of the Shinigami to take me down, and even then all he could do was seal me into his helpless little newborn son: you, in case you're as stupid as you look!"**

A touch of life entered Naruto's eyes as the words were processed: hatred. "Are you saying that the reason that the village hates me is because of you, and that my own father put you here?" Moria grinned in the only way he knew (evilly) as he nodded the affirmative. Naruto threw back his head for the second time in as many hours, but this time it was not a wail of despair, it was a roar of fury, bordering on complete destructive madness. The walls trembled in a tremor that would have measure 9.6 on the Richter scale in the real world. The very air seemed to spasm as the young boy felt angrier than he ever had before, and he let it out in three simple words: "ARE YOU KIDDING!!!!!!!!!"

Moria raised a nonexistent eyebrow. The boy was this powerful at such a young age, not to mention within the early stages of death? He reminded him of that kid he'd heard of back in his own time: Rob Lucci or whoever it was. Moria thanked his lucky stars that he'd found this kid: it was too perfect. When the room finally stopped shaking, Moria spoke to the now homicidal Naruto. **"I can fully understand why you'd want to kill the villagers for doing this to you when you had no say in the matter, or why you'd want to tear your old man a new one, but that isn't why we're here. I called in a favor and arranged for the Shinigami to not collect you until ten minutes after your death. We're at the six-minute mark, so I'd appreciate it if you'd shut up and leave all questions until the end."**

Naruto shut up: it isn't every day you hear an all-powerful demon telling you it went to the trouble of keeping your soul on earth just so it could talk to you. **"Since none of this is going to make any sense without sufficient schema, I'm going to take a minute to give a brief history lesson. Approximately nine thousand years ago or so, I was a pirate named Gecko Moria. In that age, the entire planet was nothing but a bunch of islands except for one stretch that circled the globe called the Red Line. I worked for the World Government as one of the Shichibukai, sanctioned pirates that hunt down other pirates in the most dangerous of the five oceans: the Grand Line, which ran perpendicular to the Red Line."**

"**I wasn't exactly what one would call sane. I had the power to steal peoples' shadows, making me a necromancer, in exchange for my ability to swim; don't ask. I used these shadows to create an army of zombies, assisted by three others. However, one day, some upstart pirate wound up being stronger than I thought and ended up destroying my ship. Shortly afterward, he accidentally killed me when he tried to save the man he considered his brother from the World Government; again, don't ask. Apparently, ripping people's souls out of their bodies for your own gain and amusement doesn't win you points with the afterlife: Heaven wouldn't take me because I was evil, and Hell thought I was **_**too**_** evil! Can you believe it?" **Moria sighed before continuing with his tale.

"**I wound up stuck wandering the earth for all eternity. I managed to learn whole new branches of necromancy by watching future practitioners, but it didn't do me a lot of good in my dead condition. The only thing I had to occupy myself was avoid the Shinigami when he kept trying to convince me to let him eat me. Around a century ago, the first ninja in the world took on one of the upper-level demons from Hell that was just taking a stroll, called the Juubi. He wound up sealing it inside himself and splitting it into nine pieces of energy when he died. I found one of those fragments, absorbed it, and lo and behold I turn into a giant nine-tailed fox."** Moria gave a shrug, which wasn't seen by Naruto, but it was sensed.

"**So there I was, destroying the lives of the innocent for my own amusement, when I run across the great-grandson of the guy who took on the Juubi. He turned out to be Uchiha Madara, the patriarch of the Uchiha clan your village keeps locked up in their compound. Anyway, he had some super-advanced form of the Sharingan, that weird eye thing the Uchiha clan has. Apparently, those eyes happened to have power over the fragment of the Juubi I sucked up; just my luck, huh? He leeched half my power for himself, before sending me to wipe out Konoha. As it turns out, the Uchiha and the Senju are descended from that first ninja, and they hate each other. Madara thought he was getting a sweet deal when his cousin let his clan into the village, but he and his clan wound up segregated and stuck in that fancy compound. This was his way of getting even. I was just a tool."** Naruto didn't have to guess how much Moria hated being made into a cat's-paw for someone that had the audacity to take his power and then walk away: it was radiating off the being.

"**Now that you got the background, here's the deal: I want Uchiha Madara dead. His clan too, while I'm at it. However, because of your retard of a dad, I'm stuck with you until eternity's end, so you have to do it. As it is, even if I healed your body and 'revived' you, you'd never catch up to Madara in a million years: he's an extremely skilled ninja with so many tricks and advantages that it's not even funny. Plus, I don't intend to let him have the honor of dying by a Shinobi's hands. For that matter, I couldn't live with having to live inside one of those cloak-and-dagger assassin wanna-bees."** Naruto nodded, but he was a child and he was getting impatient. "Get to the point already, Moria-sama."

Moria shivered; it was good to be called that again. **"Okay, here's the point: you're going to be a necromancer. A **_**true**_** necromancer, not the shortcut, one-use version I was. Here's how it works: in my time, there were these fruits that contained power from the Void, which is the gaping emptiness that lies beyond life and death itself. The Void is the source of ultimate power: all-consuming, limitless, and capable of anything if it's shaped by a strong-enough will. These fruits were the result of a surge of the Void into the ocean in my time, crystallizing or fruit-ilizing or whatever every demon out of Hell at the time. Therefore, I wasn't a true necromancer, since all I did was absorb the power of a darkness-related demon. A real necromancer, I have learned in my wanderings, is a person that has embraced the Void and allowed it to consume them while remaining whole. Basically, it's like diving into a pool of acidic glue and managing to get out before you're eaten to the bone. If you manage this, with your will and potential, your powers could be limitless. You could wipe out the village while you're taking out the Uchiha clan for me."**

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "You're saying that I could get the power to wipe out the village if I embrace this Void, provided I don't wind up dead." The spectral image of Moria's face nodded. "Why the hell should I help you then?" Moria's grin turned into a snarl, and suddenly Naruto was on the ground as excruciating pain permeated every cell in his body. He couldn't even scream pass the pain. The seal kicked in, painfully expelling Moria's power from the chamber before it could kill Naruto. **"Don't forget that I could just let us die right here and now, child. I'm offering you a chance to become a god amongst worms, and you dare to question your debt to me? Be grateful my thirst for revenge outweighs my disgust."**

Naruto gasped, trying to get as much air into his lungs as possible. He had _never_ felt so much pain in his entire life. He got the message: _do not mess with this guy._ Naruto picked himself off the damp ground, turning to face the being within. "Okay, I get that I owe you for keeping me alive in the first place, but let's make one thing clear: I decide how we do things. I'll kill the Uchiha for you, but I'll take my own sweet time doing it." Naruto waited for another explosion, but Moria seemed unconcerned about this little detail. _'I guess when you've lived for nine thousand years, patience is a given.'_ Naruto cleared his throat. "Okay, let's get this started. How do I embrace the Void?"

Moria grinned again, before a red fox-tail appeared out of the darkness of the cage. It seemed to edge cautiously past the bars of the seal, before tapping a section of the floor. There was a bright flash of light from the slip of paper and Moria winced in pain, and the tail was suddenly gone. Where it had tapped the ground, there was now a hole of utter blackness. Naruto got the feeling that he could put a miniature sun right above the hole and it would still remain just as black and impenetrable as it was now. **"Sink into the darkness of your own free will. After that, remember one thing: this is a test of your will. Do not lose." **With that, the eyes and mouth disappeared, leaving Naruto by himself.

Naruto slowly walked up to the hole. He looked down into the infinite darkness. He thought of what a huge risk this was and why he was even doing this is the first place. And then he remembered: the villagers and their petty hate, the faceless ninja as they tried to kill him, the Sandaime smiling as he refused to answer any of his questions. Naruto's resolve hardened and he stepped right onto the disk of shadow. For a second, it was as if he were standing on just another piece of floor. Then, all of a sudden, he started to sink down into the disk, his body disappearing from view as it passed through the hole.

Naruto could still feel his limbs, and the parts that were engulfed in the darkness. _WOW_. It started in his toes, then his feet, than his entire leg up to the knee: a sweet, numbing pleasure so strong and intense that it was all Naruto could do not to moan. The pleasure was incredible, and it seemed to come from a never-ending source. How easy it would be to just give up his self, his entire being, just to let go and be lost forever in that comforting darkness.

Naruto bit his tongue, the brief flash of pain giving him enough sense of mind to realize what was going on. If he gave in, he would disappear: not die, but disappear, vanish into thin air. He could feel that emptiness, hiding behind the sweetness. He could fall into that and never be seen again, just a drop in a boundless ocean, without any sense of self. He couldn't let that happen. Then the pain faded, and he was assaulted by ecstasy once again. This time, he fought, not allowing himself to be consumed. As his head fell under, Moria gave one last farewell. **"Good luck, kid."**

And Naruto was lost, lost in an infinite darkness that swallowed him up with no intention of letting him out again.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes. He hadn't expected that. One second he's fighting back the Void for what felt like his 247th year in there, and the next he's back in Konoha, leaning against the wall that had trapped him in the corner where he'd died. Impossible as it seemed, given how much time had passed for Naruto, it was still the same night that he'd died; he could hear the festival in the distance. Naruto looked down at his chest, aware of a minor discomfort in that area. He found a kunai sticking out. Naruto raised an eyebrow, but pulled it out. All of a sudden, the wound left behind disappeared.

That's when Naruto felt it: just under the surface of his skin, throughout his entire body, he felt the sweet oblivion of the Void. It felt like it was behind a wall, but Naruto felt he could easily go past that wall and pluck a piece of the Void for his use. He knew instinctively that he couldn't take too much, or he'd wind up swallowed up. He would need to be careful how he used his power. And it _was_ power. Past the pleasure the Void provided, he could feel its power, its ability to become or do whatever he wanted. It needed focus and a strong hand to guide it, but he felt its potential to be anything. He knew all of this instinctively, having spent what felt like centuries floating in the Void.

'**Testing, one, two; trolls in a tantrum cause terrible trouble!'** Naruto flinched as the voice of what was once Gecko Moria boomed within his head. **'Ah, you can hear me. This is how we're going to talk without you having to meditate to wind up back in you mindscape, which I should mention has changed from a sewer to a cemetery, not that I mind the change in scenery. In case you want to say something to me, just speak within your head!'**

'_Fine, I will. For starters, please put a lid on it! You don't have to be so loud! Secondly, what the hell do I do now? I have no idea how to use the Void and everyone thinks I'm dead!'_ Before Moria even had a chance to answer, an Anbu showed up, evidently sent to pick up his dead body. Naruto waved at the guy and said "Over here." The Anbu seemed shocked to find him alive. "If you're here for my corpse, sorry to disappoint you. Now, could you please help me up and take me to the old man; I've got some questions for him."

Naruto was no longer a sweet seven-year old; his mask had shattered, and he'd spent a good while drifting in infinity; he figured that manners were the last thing that mattered now. The Anbu, after using six different discrete methods to determine that this was indeed his charge and nod a cleverly disguised spy or assassin, felt at a loss. He supposed that the Kyuubi could have healed the boy, and his orders were moot at this point… What the hell. The Anbu helped the boy to his feet, before gripping his shoulder and putting his hand into a seal. In an instant, the two were within the Hokage's office.

The Sandaime nearly had a heart attack when he saw that Naruto was alive. Meanwhile, the Anbu opted to get out of there before his confusion interfered with something, and Naruto settled himself into a chair in front of the Hokage's desk, which was loaded with mountains of paperwork. When Sarutobi managed to get his heart rate back under control, he asked, hardly believing his eyes, "Naruto, is that you?"

Naruto faced a sudden debate. The question had more significance than the Sandaime thought. The question, to Naruto, was whether or not he should put his mask back on. The former meant having to go about the hellhole that was his life while pretending to be all happy and joyful like some retarded puppy that didn't care about how abusive his master was because he couldn't remember the last time he'd been kicked. The latter, on the other hand, meant having to answer a lot of questions and give away precious information no one else had. And if there was one thing Naruto knew, it was that knowledge was power: it was knowledge of him that had prevented him from being consumed by the Void.

So, even though it almost caused him physical pain to do it, Naruto plastered on his fake smile. "Hi, old man. Looks like I made it again. I just woke up when that mask-guy showed up. I guess really do heal fast!" The whole act contained just enough youthful innocence and naivety that Sarutobi would still think that he was just some happy-go-lucky kid. Inwardly, he and Moria were gagging.

Sarutobi, being the senile idiot he is, chalked up the faster-than-normal healing to the Kyuubi. Though he didn't appreciate the mask, he figured it was better for Naruto to kid himself than really face the problem. After making sure that Naruto was okay with a few more questions, with Naruto managing to act well enough, the old monkey allowed them to go. As the small boy left, Sarutobi thought to himself _'Be patient, Naruto. One of these days, the village will see you for the hero you are. You'll make your father proud, my boy.'_ Yeah, and Hell will start selling Italian ice while Gai stops wearing spandex and gets a normal haircut; seriously, is the guy tweaking or something?

* * *

Naruto sits down in his apartment, if it could be called that. The floor creaked and was rotted, there was graffiti everywhere, and you had to perform eldritch rituals if you expected hot water. That didn't really matter at this point for Naruto, who was used to it, but Moria made a mental note to make sure the kid got a decent residence; haunting castles made one spoiled.

'**Before you so much as think anything kid, I've got a little something I need you to do. Do you have a scroll, book, folio, anything that has written word on it?'** Naruto blinked, but obediently made his way to his secret stash of things he felt important, in case the villagers raided his house and took everything. He pulled out a small picture book, a gift from the Sandaime. **'Good, now there's just one little formality. You need my knowledge on necromancy, and I need to get out of your body, because the Void is already starting to try and suck me up. Apparently, the Shinigami isn't as omni-powerful as he thinks he is. The seal completely revolves around your will, so I should be able to transfer my consciousness into this book with your permission. If you do that, I'm put out of danger of being absorbed into oblivion, and the book will change form to accommodate me, meaning I could turn myself into a how-to manual for necromancy; killing two birds with one stone. Of course, you'll need the book within ten feet of yourself for the rest of your life, but you'll be using it all that time so I see no difficulty.'**

Naruto blinked, before thinking _'Um… I give you permission to go inside the book?'_ Almost as soon as he thought it, Naruto felt a huge surge of wild _energy_ flow up from his abdomen, through his arm, and into the book. Naruto _felt_ like there should be a hollow spot inside where that energy had once been, but all he felt was the Void, eagerly sucking up the empty space to make more of itself. With the book, things were much more dramatic. The cover bubbled, the pages changed shape, and words and lines of type seemed to fly off the page and form images of an evil fox. Moria's odd laugh seemed to echo around the apartment, though no sound came directly from the book. When everything settle down, the book was much larger, bound in grey leather, and had a title made up of silver imprints, though they were in a language Naruto didn't know. But even as he looked, the glyphs seemed to rearrange themselves until they spelled out, perfectly legible to Naruto, 'A Guide to the Most Arcane and Powerful Art of Necromancy, Being Also a Repository of the Consciousness and Presence of the Wandering Spirit and Demon, Gecko Moria'.

'**A bit wordy, I'll admit, but you're the only one that'll be reading this. Gods, it feels strange to be inside a book. This is going to take some getting used to. Plus, I think another third of my energy was sucked up by the void on my way here. Well, one-sixth of an apocalyptic monster is better than nothing, I suppose.'** Moria's voice was still in Naruto's head, though he suspected that it was only because he was in physical contact with the book.

Curious, Naruto opened up the book to the first page. For a second, it seemed as if the page were blank, but just as Naruto was about to ask Moria, words seemed to flow right up out of the page, as if the ink had come from within the page itself. At the top were the words 'Table of Contents', followed by a list of topics, though oddly no page numbers. **'This thing isn't your average book, genius. You tell me the topic or tidbit you want to learn, and I'll make what I know of it appear on a page. I might throw in an effect where the pages turn as if in a sudden wind, but then again that could be just a tad melodramatic.'**

Naruto didn't really care; too busy studying the various topics. _'Psychokinesis, Elemental Manipulation, Zombieology, Conjuring; you weren't kidding when you said I could become a god with the right training. Well, I'm still in shock a little, so I don't think I should try anything out tonight, but maybe I should read up on my predecessors.'_ Naruto blinked. _'Um, where the hell did that last word come from?'_ Moria chuckled to himself, but refused to answer. Instead, the pages of the book seemed to be caught in a gust, before landing on an empty page (Book of Shadows from Charmed).

Once again, the words seemed to form up right out of the page. At the top, the page was headed 'Necromancers of Note', before giving a long list of names. At random, Naruto picked one near the top, a guy named 'Heinrich Kemmler'. This time, the page just cleared, before filling up once again with words, this time headed with the name Naruto had just picked. Naruto read eagerly, wondering what the accomplishments of former Necromancers were, so that he could have a better judgment on how he could turn out.

'Heinrich Kemmler, birth date unknown, was unquestionably the most powerful and successful necromancer of the First Age of Man. The man waged war on the magical community at the time, displaying mastery over all forms of necromancy known at the time, and even displaying unheard of talents of his own invention. He was personally responsible for the First World War of the age, and started wreaking havoc during the Second World War. Besides his considerable abilities, he also had allegiances from the demons, the Vampire Courts, and some minor fairies of the Unseelie, as well as a plethora of his personal apprentices. It took the entirety of the White Council, the ruling body of wizards, and all their allies to kill him. He kept four journals: the Blood, Mind, Heart, and Word of Kemmler, the last containing his untested formula to attain the power of a minor god. Unfortunately, all four were destroyed at the end of the First Age of Man, when the planet was hit by a geomagnetic reversal, ultimately leading to the Second Age of Man, or the Age of Pirates.'

Naruto whistled. This guy had manufactured a global war, not to mention becoming so powerful and well-connected that it took an entire army to take him down? Naruto felt all tingly when he thought of that as himself. Every young kid occasionally has a phase when they dream of ruling the world. With his new power, that just might be possible for Naruto. The young boy was looking forward to more, but he was suddenly very tired; cheating death always seemed to do that to him. He nodded off, his new book clutched in his hands.

**

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To be honest, I don't really expect this story to go anywhere. I made it up years ago to make my own version of one of my favorite fics (Kage no Naruto), but I never really expected it to work. However, I'm going to give it a try. Give me your honest opinion, please; I really prefer reviews to just getting a favorite story or story alert. I'll even allow anonymous reviews to those just browsing. Please, Review! Ja ne.**


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